Christmas Day

On Christmas Day we were actually able to sleep in pretty late (likely due to someones inability to fall asleep quickly the night before) so everyone was waiting and very excited when we finally made it upstairs.



The best was right after Corbin woke up Caleb asked him what day it was and he looked all confused and said, "Saturday?"

"First of all... good guess, but no. Second of all, I meant what special day is it?"

"I don't know...?"

"Who came last night Corbin?"

"Oh, its Christmas!" he says as a slight grin breaks out across his face. What a fun kid.


We had a wonderful morning together opening presents. Corbin's big gift this year was a bike from Santa, which he wasn't as excited about as one would hope, but I think he will love it this summer once he gets a chance to use it.



Makelle was clueless the whole time, but despite her serious lack of understanding, seemed to love Christmas morning. First of all she just seems to always light up and sport a huge smile whenever we are all together. Second of all there was stuff everywhere to look at, poke at, and attempt to eat. She eventually secured herself a permanent spot on Daddy's lap. Corbin was really good at helping Makelle open her presents, I LOVE that they are all ready good little buddies.


By the time everyone got through the mountain of presents under the tree it was nearly lunch time and we all got to sit down to a delicious turkey dinner with the whole family, before people started to head home.



With all the other cousins gone Corbin was left alone the remainder of the day playing with all of his new toys, which kept him entertained enough for us to play a couple games and assemble the 'bad guys' puzzle that Corbin picked out for Caleb's Christmas present. Such a fun day full of great memories.

Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve Caleb and I took all the little kids to see the new Disney movie, " The Frog Princess," leaving the adults some free time to get things ready for that night. Then when we got back we enjoyed the Miller's traditional Mary and Joseph dinner. We ate 'biblical foods' (dates, fish, rice, olives, nuts, avocados, etc.) out of wooden dishes under candlelight.


Then we all were assigned a role and helped reenact the story of Baby Jesus' birth. Corbin and Caleb were innkeepers/shepherds and Makelle and I got to be angels. Corbin had his, "sorry there is no more room, our beds are all full," line down solid, right up until it was time to say it, then he barely managed to whisper it when his big moment came. But that's okay, I think it helped him better understand and/or remember the story and that was the real goal so it all worked out.




Then we got to each open a present before heading off to bed where we attempted to "fall asleep quickly before Santa came." Attempted being the key word there. Celeste made cute knit hats for all the kids (Corbin sure did fall asleep with his on that night) and we opened a new game from Jenna, called Puerto Rico. So after the kids all got settled down we got a chance to play it once before heading to bed ourselves, with rapt anticipation!

St. George

We spent a day down in St. George with Caleb's family. We got to eat at the good old In-and-Out Burger. It was such a nice day that we even took our food over to a park and played football for a little while.

Then we all went to the St. George Temple Visitor's Center and saw the Reflections of Christ photography exhibit. It was done by Mark Mabry and he used models to photograph the life of Christ. It was pretty amazing. It was also nice to have a teaching opportunity and show the images to Corbin. Caleb went around with him and explained all the pictures. I think it helped set the tone for Christmas and remind us about the 'true meaning of Christmas.'

Gingerbread

Over the Christmas break we came down to Cedar City to spend the Holidays with the Miller family. It has been a lot of fun as all 6 siblings were able to make it into town and we've been spending a lot of time hanging out, playing games and watching movies.


On Monday we made Gingerbread houses. I found a kit at the store with some egg-free royal icing so Corbin got to go to town decorating however he wanted. Being the perfectionist, control freak I am, I was seriously close to a stress related anxiety attack when he started randomly sticking pieces of mismatched candy haphazardly all over the house, but after a few deep breaths I succumbed to the joy of 3-year-old creativity and allowed him to direct the decorating efforts on our house.




My favorite was when Corbin kept taking the licorice ropes and twisting and tying them up into little balls, which he called, 'timmies' he would then point out where he wanted to place his 'timmy' on the house and you would make a glob of icing for him to stick it to. He was so fun to watch.


Corbin's favorite was consuming a massive amount of sugar after insisting he taste every variety of candy in front of him. (Including a chunk of the house itself.)


Jenna was overly joyed to be partnerless and get to help Celeste and Josh make their house. By the end theirs' looked the most like a typical holiday wonderland with nice patterns, lamp posts, and overall well put together.


Jake and Ashley's house was half cutsie and traditional and half Catholic/Ancient Greek gummy bear wars. You can probably guess who contributed to each area of the house :)

The Holidays

Last night we celebrated the Holidays a little early with my family. We had dinner together and then drove up to Ogden's Holiday Village and looked at the festive displays. Then went and got hot chocolate afterwards.



I don't know what Corbin liked more, actually looking inside the cute little houses, all decorated nice, or climbing up onto the little platforms so that he could see in the windows. Either way he had fun.

Makelle sat there sucking on her little mittens and smiling the whole time. Whenever we leaned her in close to one of the Christmas displays she would stare mesmerized with her slight little grin. Adorable child.

It's a Christmas Miracle!

This morning I made blueberry pancakes for breakfast. I premix a large amount of the dry ingredients for a vegan variety for Corbin, so I can just make a pancake or two's worth at a time by adding some soy milk and oil.

Well, somehow when I was mixing my two separate bowls I messed up and made both batches with regular pancake mix, which has dry eggs and powdered milk in, and fed one to CORBIN!

I was freaking out, because I didn't realize it until after he had eaten almost the whole thing. The last time he ate something he wasn't suppose to he could hardly breathe and needed Benedryl treatments the rest of the day and threw up for hours on end. But today he didn't have any kind of reaction!!

Miracle!
I skin tested him by touching his back with a drop of milk and he immediately had a couple of hives pop up, so he isn't instantly better, but this is the first sign we have ever had that he might just be outgrowing these allergies. Or at least he may not be as severely allergic.

Needless to say... we're excited.

Nap? Time

Corbin stopped taking good naps nearly a year ago... far too soon in my opinion. So every day for an hour or so he goes in his room for "nap" time and plays quietly on his bed while I get some work done. I do let him get out a couple of toys, but he has to play with them on his bed.

So today I go in there to tell him quiet time is up and discover he has taken every single toy, book and game out of his closet and piled them on his bed. I guess that is one way to survive a whole hour on your bed, simply bring everything possible with you -- always be prepared, right?



Boy that was some productive down time... sigh.

Candy!

We decided to carry on what has become a new Lloyd tradition for the girls, and I spent Friday up at my parents' house with my mom and sister-in-law making yummy goodies to share with family and friends.

This year we decided to make a collection of candies from Peppermint Patties and Twix bars to fudge and caramels. It is always a fun learning and bonding experience!

Makelle's favorites were the peanut butter balls. (Who knew she could polish off that many Cheerios so fast? Plus, I could have sworn her arms were NOT that long!)



And once we got home, Corbin enjoyed helping me dip pretzels in chocolate so he could have a treat as well.

Snow Day

Today we awoke to our first real snowfall of the season. Which meant that it took Caleb 2 hours to get to work this morning, and a fun day of playing outside for us! Sounds fair, right? :)

All the little kids in the neighborhood got together and played in the snow this morning. The snow was too 'fluffy' to build forts and snowmen, so they took turns getting pulled on the dog sled, shoveling the snow into piles, and playing on the kiddie snowboard (which also just so happens to be Corbin's new favorite thing EVER).



Cute little Makelle got so bundled up, she couldn't really bend enough to crawl around, so she mostly just sat there poking at the snow, trying to figure out what was going on. She actually had a tiny grin on her face most of the time, until right at the end when the cold set in and she started to get tired.


Cute kids. Fun times. Good memories.

Christmas Parties

Last night was the annual Tanner, LC Christmas party. They changed it around a little this year, so we got to go to the Clark Planetarium for dinner and a show. We saw, "Mystery of the Nile" in their IMax theater, which was amazing.

Then this morning was our ward Christmas party at the church. We ate yummy breakfast, Corbin re-discovered candy canes, they put on a very impressive rendition of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas," and of course Santa came to visit!

I am Thankful for...

... family


... our health


... yummy food


... games


... and my kids!


This year for Thanksgiving we stayed at home and enjoyed a lazy weekend full of food, games and laughter.

My perpetually sick kids were not feeling well the first part of the week. (They both had fevers, coughs, and lots of runny noses, then Makelle broke out in this weird rash all over her body.) But by Wednesday they started feeling a little better, so my dad came down and gave us a break and watched the kids while we went to a movie together... always so fun.

Then on Thursday we slept in, ate a nice breakfast together, then got ready and headed over to my Aunt's house in Farmington. We had a yummy Thanksgiving dinner with my Grandparents, parents, brothers, aunts and uncles and their families.

It is a Nash family tradition that every year after dinner we play BINGO. Everyone brings some fun little prizes and every time you get a BINGO you get to pick from the pile, then when the pile runs out you start to steal from each other until someone gets a blackout. I think Corbin ended up with every single prize that had balls or wheels involved... one was a little electronic car, which he played with so much that the batteries died within 5 hours. Apparently it isn't meant to be constantly running for all 5 hours straight!

The next day we sat home and played games and watched movies while everyone else braved the Black Friday crowds, then we went up to my parents to eat turkey sandwiches, hang out with the family and play cards with my Grandparents... Grandpa and I thoroughly beat Caleb and Grandma each and every single round... it was great.

Today we will most definitely be watching the BYU vs. Utah football game, with high hopes of cheering the Cougars to victory.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Birthday Buddy

Our little guy turned 3 years old on Friday! We love him so much, it was really fun to celebrate his little life thus far.

Of course he was a little coughy (is that a word?) when he woke up, but we decided to celebrate anyway. I hung out with him at home during the day and pretty much let him have anything he wanted... which meant oreos for lunch and LOTS of playtime and reading books together.

Then when Caleb got home we packed up Bean's party stuff and took him to Carl's Jr. (That is his favorite restaurant, not because he likes the food... quite the opposite, he hates hamburgers... rather because he LOVES their play place.) So we met our families there (Grandma and Grandpa Lloyd, Matt, Jake, Benson, Sam, Trey, Colton, Brynn, Tori, Tyler and Rachel) and the kids ran around playing while they nibbled at/barely touched their food, we opened presents and had cake and ice cream.

Corbin had so much fun. 3 is a good age, because I think this is the first year he really understood what a birthday party is and yet was still young enough to be SO thrilled and excited by every little thing.


We love you Corbin, Happy Birthday Buddy! And thanks to everyone who came down to celebrate with us and who gave Corbin all his wonderful new toys, which have kept him entertained quite nicely thus far.

The Book of Mormom is TRUE!

As part of the kids' bedtime routine, we have been reading the children's Book of Mormon together as a family every night. Tonight we finished the last chapter. This involved reading the section where Moroni challenges individuals to read the Book of Mormon and pray to the Lord to find out for themselves whether or not it is true.

Little kids are so darn cute. It is no wonder we are told to be submissive and faithful even as a child.

After reading this we explained to him that it meant he could pray and ask Heavenly Father whether the Book of Mormon was true or not. And we tried to teach him about the concept of The Spirit and how it would confirm to him in his heart and in his mind the truths of the scriptures. Kind of tough to break down to a 2-year-old's level of understanding... or so we thought.

It was his turn to offer the family prayer, so we reminded him of Moroni's challenge and invited him to begin his prayer.

"Dear Heavenly Father, help me know are the scriptures true or not? YES! (shouts it out mid prayer, we look up startled, his eyes are popping out of his head) THE SCRIPTURES ARE TRUE! YES, THEY ARE!"

We try not to laugh/cry tears of pure joy and pride as he continues his normal prayer, blessing Makelley-Belly and his toys and books.

In actuality it was easier for him to understand and recognize the Lord's answer to an honest and simple prayer, than it is for me!

What an amazing little spirit he has, if only we all had his faith and undoubting acceptance. Kids are awesome! They continue to surprise me and teach me so much about life each and every day.

It just keeps getting worse

Today I bought some cashews to put in my Asian meal. Being me, I of course had to open them and eat a couple while I was cooking. Corbin asked if he could have one, so of course I let him. A couple of minutes later we discovered that he is also allergic to cashews.

This actually helps explain things, because while he has never eaten a cashew before, he did eat some peanuts out of a can of mixed nuts once and for some reason threw up and got a little rash shortly after. I couldn't figure it out, because it wasn't a full blown allergic reaction and I know that he does okay with peanuts, but I guess there must have been some cashew oils on the nuts he ate.

I think that being allergic to cashews means there is a good chance he might be allergic to other nuts as well, but I am not sure. So far I know he has eaten almonds, walnuts and peanuts okay. I guess we will just have to be careful with him if he ever tries new nuts now. Oh boy, this kid.

And so it begins

Makelle has been doing really well with eating solids. Meaning it has been a much more pleasant experience than what we went through with Corbin, who got sick almost every single time I fed him at first. So I decided to brave the proteins with Makelle last night and fed her meat for the first time. I made a really simple chicken soup (broth, peas, carrots, shredded chicken), pureed it for her and let her try it. She didn't seem to like it -- out came the clenched jaw and flailing hands, but we managed to get some down her. Two hours later she started throwing up all over herself. Poor girl, she clearly wasn't ready for it and Mommy tried to make her eat it. I felt horrible. Everyone tells me that if you wait too long to introduce new flavors and textures you end up with a picky eater (Exhibit A: Corbin) but my kids just seem to have such sensitive little digestive systems, I think we really don't have any other option. So, I guess we are back to fruits, veggies and simple grains for now.

Happy Halloween

Makelle was still a little stuffy, but for the most part the kids were feeling better, so we got dressed up for the ward Halloween party and yesterday we took them to the Halloween party at Caleb's office. It was fun to show Corbin where Caleb worked, now that he is older and starting to understand things better. Plus, it was the first time a lot of Caleb's coworkers got to see Makelle so that was fun.


Then this afternoon we took the kids around to our families' to show off their cute little outfits and then we went to the neighborhood trunk-or-treat and Corbin got super ornery (apparently no nap, no lunch and lots of treats are not the best idea... go figure). But all in all we were able to salvage most of the weekend, after being cooped up inside feeling sick, and have a good time.



Corbin said he really liked dressing up and getting treats.


Makelle seemed to really like watching people dress up and... getting treats?